I should have included Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel in the initial Stu Van Airsdale-inspired HE Oscar Balloon chart (posted on 10.26) by virtue of having included Anderson in the initial Best Director chart (posted on 10.28), but it took a while to get around to it. Birdman still leads, Boyhood is still nipping at its heels and The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything are still holding third and fourth place. Gone Girl demands inclusion because it’s David Fincher exercising his peak powers and making fierce art out of a murderous marital potboiler. Whiplash has surged ahead of the obviously damaged Interstellar and the still-unseen Unbroken. Foxcatcher…fine. And there’s no choice but to position two other keenly anticipated films, A Most Violent Year and American Sniper, at the bottom of the list. I didn’t even include The Gambler because the room is crowded and it mostly seems like a Mark Wahlberg Best Actor opportunity. For now. It screens at AFI Fest next Monday.